“Back in mid-April, I got a Facebook invite from a friend. The title was “”Girls Night Out–With Strippers!!”” Um what? Turns out, she was sending a wicked early invite for Magic Mike XXL. Now normally, I’m not into the whole “”girls night”” thing, but these gals are pretty cool. I see most of them at the yearly pub crawl I go on every summer along Boston’s Freedom Trail. Besides, watching this movie while slightly intoxicated in a group of friends beats watching it alone in the theater any day. The unexpected best part of it was that we used the event to share various articles/videos/pictures/memes of hot guys (not just limited to the XXL cast) for three months.
So after stuffing ourselves with copious amounts of guacamole and pitchers of margaritas, the time had come. And man oh (deliciously hot) man was that fun! The first time around, I feel like people didn’t really know what to make of it. It was known for the strippers, but the story actually had some darker turns. There were a couple of amazing dances, but that’s not where the focus was. Still, in the 3 years since, the story faded away, and it was just those moves on stage that people remembered. This time around, they didn’t even kid themselves with a big, intricate meaningful plot. The folks behind this movie have flat out admitted that they purposely built a storyline that would allow for as much dancing and gyrating males as they could fit in.
The “”story”” is that for a variety of reasons, the guys are going to have to step away from the stripping game, but before they do, they’re off to a male strippers convention for one last hurrah. Yes, a convention. That part always seemed a little hokey to me, but it allows this to be a fun road trip film, bringing us to new locations and introducing us to new characters. My personal favorite addition was Stephen Boss, AKA Twitch of SYTYCD fame, and DJ to Ellen Degeneres. In other words, someone just as gorgeous as the other boys who can actually impress me with his dancing. I call that a win. (His mirror dance with Channing Tatum was my favorite, purely based on skill)
Anyways, there were so many fun scenes, and all the guys had a moment to shine. Joe Manganiello in particular got to stand out a bit more. Or maybe I just noticed him more. Sure, the plot was thin, but it didn’t matter. And no, it may barely pass the Bechdel test (Elizabeth Banks greeting Jada Pinkett-Smith is enough to pass, I think), but I feel like this movie was ultimately made for the ladies (and the boys of a certain persuasion). Similar to how last month I said that despite its flaws, Jurassic World is a perfect summer movie, this is the perfect movie for a girls night out. The proof was in the ridiculous grins we all walked out with
Magic Mike XXL – \m/ \m/ \m/ \n”